128 COMl'AnATEYE ABEA 





are comprised the savage natives, we distinguish, according 

 to the three preponderant races, sixteen millions and a 

 half in the possessions of the Spanish Americans, ten 

 millions in those of the Anglo-Americans, and nearly four 

 millions in those of the Portuguese Americans. The 

 population of these three great divisions is, at the present 

 time, in the proportion of 4, 2$, 1; while the extent of 

 surface over which the population is spread, is, as the 

 numbers 1*5, 07, 1. The area of the United States is 

 nearly one-fourth greater than that of Russia west of the 

 Ural mountains ; and Spanish America is in the same propor- 

 tion more extensive than the whole of Europe. The United 

 States* contain five-eighths of the proportion of the Spanish 

 possessions, and yet their area is not one-half so large. Brazil 

 comprehends tracts of country so desert toward the west, 

 that over an extent only a third less than that of Spanish 

 America, its population is in the proportion of one to four. 

 The following table contains the results of an attempt 

 which I made, conjointly with M. Mathieu, member of the 

 Academy of Sciences, and of the Bureau des Longitudes, to 

 estimate with precision the extent of the surface of the 

 various states of America. We made use of maps, on 

 which the limits had been corrected, according to the state- 

 ments published in my " E/ecueil d 1 Observations Astrono- 

 iniques." Our scales were, generally speaking, so large 

 that spaces from four to five leagues square were not 

 omitted. We observed this degree of precision that we 

 might not add the uncertainty of the measure of triangles, 

 trapeziums, and the sinuosities of the coasts, to the un- 

 certainty of geographical statements. 



* Notwithstanding the political changes which have taken place in the 

 South American colonies, I shall throughout this work designate the 

 country inhabited by the Spanish Americans by the denomination of 

 Spanish America. I call the country of the Anglo-Americans the United 

 States, without adding "of North America," although other United States 

 exist in South America. It is embarrassing to speak of nations who play 

 a great part on the scene of the world, without having collective names. 

 The term " American " can no longer be applied solely to the citizens of 

 the United States of North America; and it were to be wished that the 

 nomenclature of the independent nations of the New Continent should be 

 fixed in a manner at once convenient, harmonious, and precise. 



